


Dr. Ackles and Subject 7321 aka Jared

by 2people2



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Creature Fic, M/M, Mpreg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-17
Updated: 2014-10-17
Packaged: 2018-02-21 13:11:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2469446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2people2/pseuds/2people2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Doctor Jensen Ackles knew he should have taken paternity leave weeks ago, but he didn’t want to get on his boss’s bad side. Now, at thirty-four weeks pregnant, he’s working at a secret government facility that studies creatures that shouldn’t exist. He thought that he’d get a break for a while, just help some of the other biologists with their projects, but that was before two armed men came into his lab with a giant snake man with floppy brown hair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dr. Ackles and Subject 7321 aka Jared

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for the Supernatural Mpreg Big Bang and has some awesome art to go with it. If you would like to see what disreputabled0g created, please go to the following page:http://disreputabled0g.livejournal.com/2966.html 
> 
> Also, I'd like to point out that Obsidianromance was my beta and she has some really awesome stories on here and on her livejournal, so you should all check those out :)

**Chapter 1. Jared. Jensen’s Pov.**

“Do you ever relax?”

I look up from my papers towards a giant tank. “What do you think I’m doing right now?” I ask, ruffling the papers in my hand.

“Reading Jeff’s stuff.” I roll my eyes. “From what you’ve taught me so far, the outside of it says ‘subject 6436’ so I’m guessing it’s about me.”

I put the papers back into their folder and set them on the desk beside me. “Yeah I was just reading about how ‘Misha the Merman doesn’t know when to shut up, so we need to find a way to surgically keep his mouth shut’.” I say, looking him straight in the eye.

He huffs and lays his head down on his folded arms. “Is this what Jeff was telling me about; hor mones?” He asks, saying ‘hormones’ as two words.

My eyes widen and I sit up straighter. “Jeff’s teaching you how to mock a pregnant man?” I ask and he laughs.

“He’s just giving me new material; I’ve been mocking you for a long time.”

I grumble as I lean back in my chair, bringing my hands up to my bulging stomach. “Oh my god.”

“You brought this upon yourself when you passed out and fell into my tank.”

“That was five months ago!” I look back up to see him giving me a smug look. “Why did we teach you English again?”

“Because you llloooovvvveee me.”

“In times like these, I question it.”

He barks out another laugh before sinking back down below the surface of the water.

If you would have told me four years ago that I’d be talking to an annoying merman in a tank, I would have laughed in your face and called you crazy, but now, nothing surprises me anymore.

I work for a government agency called N.O.C. aka New Origins Corporation. No one knows about us because…well…because if anyone found out what we did, they’d either think we were all crazy people who studied aliens or something, or they would try to hunt down the things we studied for horrible, selfish human reasons.

We study creatures that people only hear about in stories: Merpeople, griffins, people with wings, gargoyles, centaurs…things that have purposefully stayed hidden from humans for their own protection.

I don’t like working here; hell I didn’t want to in the first place. I was working as an assistant at a small University in Texas studying marine life when some people in monkey suites came to talk to me. They said that they’ve been following my work for a while and that they wanted me to become a part of their team. They didn’t tell me a lot about what the job entailed, but with the promise of moving out of Texas, getting paid triple my current salary and getting a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’, I couldn’t refuse. After that, they had me sign all sorts of legal documents, flew me up to Washington and bada bing bada boom, I was in a lab face-to-face with a gargoyle.

I tried to leave, not liking the idea of studying these creatures, but the government had me by my fucking balls. My boss, Mark Pellegrino, told me in ‘nice’ terms that if I tried to back out, then I’d be on the governments shit list for the rest of my life, aka prison, horrible record, never be able to work again, and all that shit. After that I had a panic attack in the women’s bathroom (yeah, tried to make it to the men’s but that didn’t work out).

“Jensen?”

I practically jump out of my chair at the voice behind me. “Fuck Jeff!” I say, trying to calm my breathing down.

He gives me a guilty look as he walks away from the door. “I didn’t realize you were still in here.” He says, sitting down at his desk. “Are you ok?” he asks, waving at my hand rubbing circles over my stomach.

“Yeah, my girl just doesn’t like it when her dad practically shits his pants.”

He chuckles. “Well you wouldn’t have that problem if you’d take time off.”

I roll my eyes. “Or I could work here, and take time off after I have my kid.” He looks me in the eye and his smile drops a little. “You know how Mark is; he already got pissed when I told him I was pregnant, I don’t want to test his patience anymore.” He nods his head and takes the folder I was looking at earlier. “And besides; I have three months of vacation and sick days saved up. I’m planning on using two of those up for paternity leave, then have a month left for emergencies and sick days.”

He nods his head. “Well, we’ve been really slow lately; I don’t think we’ll be getting anybody new in before you get time off.” I nod my head. “So what did you think?” he asks, lifting the folder slightly.

“His tail is healing nicely,” I say, pointing towards the x-rays. “I think you’re right about the physical therapy thing.”

Jeffery Morgan, one of the few good guys here. He was tricked into this whole mess kind of like I was, but instead of trying to get out like I did, he decided to take a bad thing and turn it into a good thing. He teaches every creature he comes in contact with English, how to read, hell even math and history of the world. He also tries to make sure they are all 100% physically ok. Take Misha for example. When he came here seven months ago, his tail was fucked up from a shark attack, so Jeff decided to do all he could to fix it. Now, two surgeries later and with a little physical therapy, he should be as good as any other Merperson out there.

When I got here, Jeff was my mentor; he realized that I was like him so he taught me all he knows, and ever since, I try to help all of the creatures assigned to me.

“Right, but what am I supposed to do?” he asks. “I mean, what type of exercises are good for tails?”

I’m about to open my mouth when there is a knock at the door.

“Jeff, is Jensen with… oh there you are.” Jim Beaver, the other good scientist at N.O.C, gives me a small smile as he enters the room, gently closing the door behind him. As he walks over to us, I notice a folder in his hands.

“What file is that?” Jeff asks, leaning back in his chair.

Jim sits on the desk and sighs. “So, I tried to get Mark to listen to me…” he trails off, setting the folder in front of me.

“But, he said that since I’m going to be taking two months off, I should work my ass off to make up for it, right?” I ask, and he nods.

“That’s shit bull,” I hear Misha say from behind me, and I roll my eyes as I reach forward to grab the folder.

“Bullshit, buddy,” Jeff says calmly as I open the file.

“Wait, there’s nothing in here; they usually have something like ‘centaur, male’ and whether it’s injured or not.”

“So, here’s the thing; no one’s ever seen one of these before.” Jim says, and Jeff growls.

“So, Mark is willing to risk Jensen, who’s thirty one weeks pregnant, with something no one knows anything about?” Jim nods his head. “Fuck!”

“Jeff, calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down Jensen! That man is so fucking stupid!”

“Out of all the creatures I’ve interacted with, only three have hurt me.”

“Yeah, and with those, we were expecting it, so you were able to protect yourself. This? We have no fucking idea.” I give him a look and he sighs.

“So, when is it coming?” I ask Jim, turning my head to look at him.

“In about three minutes.” He dead pans and my eyes widen.

“What?!?”

“I’ve been looking for you for a while.”

I push myself out of my chair and I mumble curses under my breath.

“I’m coming with you.” Jeff says, taking Misha’s file and locking it in his top desk drawer. “I want to make sure this isn’t something that’s gonna attack you.” I nod my head. “Jim can you--” he’s cut off.

“Feed Mr. Picky vegetarian over there? Sure,” he says with a small smile.

“Thanks.” And with that, we walk out of the room and down the hall to lab 219, my room.

“So, what could this thing possibly be?” I ask, trying to practically sprint down the hall but failing.

“I don’t know, but you need to promise me something,” Jeff says, grabbing onto my arm to stop me from moving. “If that thing tries to attack you, I want you to get the fuck out of there and let either me or Jim handle it. I don’t give a fuck what Mark says, you and the baby are more important than what he wants.”

I roll my eyes and nod; a small smile making its way onto my face. “I promise mother.” He fake growls at me, but smiles none the less.

As we turn the corner, I see that my office door is already wide open; causing me to move faster towards the open door. As we get closer, I hear the guards in my lab talking.

“Did it hit you?” The guard I like to call ‘blonde thug number one’ asks.

“No; I was able to grab onto its…tail thing before it could reach my head.” As I hear the reply, I step into my office. I see a large greenish brown snake tail thrashing around, and the upper body of the creature wrapped in a bag.

“What the hell did you do?!?” I practically screech, causing the two guards to jerk back in surprise before turning to face me. “Did you two just throw the thing in there? And why the fuck is there a bag over its head?”

Blond number one steps up. “It woke up in transit so we decided to give it something to calm down.”

“That still doesn’t tell me why there’s a god damn bag over its head!” I look over the guards shoulder to see the creature continuing to struggle, and a pang of guilt hits me.

“Usually the drugs knock them out, but the creature was still awake; we thought that would calm it down.” This, right here, is why I hate these guards. Why Mark even decided to let them transport creatures to the labs, I’ll never know, but if a scientist would have done it, they would have treated them like a human being and not put a fucking burlap sack over their heads!

“If you put a fucking burlap sack over my head right now, would I be calm?” I ask them, but before they can answer, the creature is finally able to escape the bag and I lose my train of thought once I see the very human, and very manly, looking upper body.

The creature looks similar to a snake version of Misha; it’s green/brown snake like body making its way up towards his waist, before molding in to sun-tanned skin. The creature is large, around six and a half feet tall, and well built: chiseled chest, muscle ripped arms, and a honest to god six back. His upper body, along with his face, look like any other human being…but before I can continue that train of thought, my mind pulls me out of my ‘scientist analyzing his subject’ frame of mind to the scene laying out in front of me.  

The Snake…man…thing drags its gaze up from the ground to look at us and hisses; bringing his hands up towards the glass to bang on it. The two guards make to take a step forward but I stop them.

“What the fuck to do you think you’re doing! Don’t you see he’s scared?!?” I place myself between the glass wall and the guards. “You did your job; leave.” The blond haired guard turns his head to look towards Jeff.

“You heard the man,” Jeff insists.

The hissing stops, and I look towards the glass to see the Snake Man looking right at me. “Leave quickly.” I say one last time. The blond rolls his eyes at the other, but they leave the room a few second later; closing the door with a slam behind them. Without the threat of the guards, I’m finally able to get a closer look at the creature; my eyes honing in on his shoulder. “He’s hurt.” I mutter to myself, rushing towards the supply closet to grab the first aid kit.

“Jensen, what the fuck are you doing?” Jeff asks, stepping towards the door keeping the creature in his enclosed room.

“Look at his shoulder.” I say, forcing Jeff to turn around. He hisses sympathetically at the sight and reaches towards me to hand him the supplies in my hand. “You’re not going in there.” I say, and he scoffs.

“You saw how he reacted to the guards; he’ll hurt you!” the creature hisses at Jeff’s raised tone, and I quickly shush him.

“Shut up.” I whisper, waiting for Jeff to calm down. “Can’t you tell he’s scared? If I was in his situation, I’d be scared of those guards to.” Jeff looks back towards the cell and sighs, nodding his head. “I know you’re worried about me, but let me try something ok?” I ask. Jeff turns to face me and looks me straight in the eye. “If it tries to attack me, I’ll let you take over.”

He doesn’t look happy about what I’m saying, but nods. “I’m staying in the room.”

I roll my eyes. “By my desk.” He looks like he wants to protest, but I shake my head before he can respond. He huffs but moves towards the desk, leaving me alone with the creature. I step up towards the cell slowly, trying to look as non-threating as possible.

“Hey, I’m not going to hurt you ok?” I say quietly, raising my free hand in an ‘I surrender’ gesture. The creature looks at me with hard hazel eyes, moving his uninjured arm to touch the glass. “You’re hurt,” I say, pointing to his bloody shoulder. “I can help make that better, but I need to get a closer look.” His eyes shift to the first aid kit in my hand. “Do you understand me?” I ask, surprised when he nods his head in response. I shoot Jeff a wide eyes look, and he quickly grabs the empty file to record this information. I take a step closer to the door. “Will you let me come in?” I ask. The creature gives me a calculating look, but after a few moments he slithers backwards. I take a deep breath and place my hand on the doorknob, giving Jeff one more glance before slowly opening the door.

“Be careful.” Jeff says as he takes a step closer; wanting to keep me in his line of sight with this new creature. I nod my head and slowly make my way into the cell.

Once I close the door behind me and walk further into the room, placing my free hand protectively on my protruding stomach. The creature watches me closely; following my every move to prepare himself in case I attack him. I stop about four feet into the room, and take a deep breath. As I watch him for a moment, I realize that moving towards him would be a bad idea, so I decide to make him come to me. I lower myself to the ground slowly, grunting as I fall onto my ass due to my humongous stomach knocking me off kilter. I decide to let him make the next move; not wanting him to feel threatened and attack me.

We sit there silently for several minutes; his eyes never leaving me as I gently rub circles into my stomach, trying to calm my little girl down. After a while, he begins to move towards me, obviously seeing that I am not a threat to him. He stops about two feet in front of me as I move so I’m on my knees.

“Can I see your shoulder?” I ask quietly, slowly bringing my hands up. He moves closer to me so I can touch his arm. As I lightly touch the warm skin around the bloody gash, the creature hisses in pain, causing me to fall backwards.

“Jensen!” Jeff calls, and I quickly throw my hand back to stop him from barging into the room.

“I’m fine,” I say as I sit back up. “I….” I trail off as the creature moves closer, reaching out a large hand and gently placing it on the outward curve of my stomach. My breath hitches as he opens his mouth.

“Baby?” The creature asks with a deep voice. I nod my head, too shocked to say anything. I look over my shoulder for a moment to see Jeff’s wide eyes staring at the two of us. I look back towards the snake man just as my little girl gives an impressive kick towards the foreign hand, causing me to groan in pain. The creature’s eyes widen as he looks towards his hand on my stomach.

“Ah…you speak English?” I ask, not knowing what else to say. The creature looks back up to my face and nods.

“Yesssss.” He answers as he slowly removes his hand.

“How…” I trail off.

“Not firsssst human I’ve met.” He answers, and in the back of my mind I make a mental note that his tongue looks exactly like a snake’s. “Jensssen?” he asks, taking his hand off of my stomach to point his finger about four inches away from my chest.

“Y-yeah…that’s me.” I answer, and he nods his head.

“Jared.” He says after a few minutes of silence.

“Your name is Jared?” he nods.

“Englissh name.” he looks me in the eye for another moment before turning his body, giving me full access to his shoulder.

“Are you sure?” I ask, gesturing to his injured arm.

His fork like tongue slithers out of his mouth quickly, wetting his lips, before he answers. “I…trussst you.” He says.

I nod my head, before slowly touching his shoulder again to test his reaction. He doesn’t hiss when I touch the tender wound so I take that as my cue to continue.

As I finish cleaning the wound, put in five stitches, and wrap bandage around his arm, I can’t help but think to myself, _what the fuck am I getting myself into?_  

**Chapter 2. Getting to Know You. Jensen’s Pov.**

**Day 2: Sour Punch Straws…the Strawberry Kind.**

I walk into my office with a large bag of Sour Patch Straws in hand. As I close the door behind me, I look towards Jared’s enclosure.

“Hey, whatcha looking at?” I say, walking towards his area to see him looking through one of the books I gave him while his tail is curled up around him.

“What thisss?” he asks, pointing to a picture.

“Can I come in so I can see it?” I ask, not wanting to go into his space without permission. He nods his head and I open the door to his enclosure, keeping it open as I walk over to his makeshift lounge area.

“That’s a dolphin.”

“D-dolphin.” He repeats hesitantly and I nod.

“Yeah, they live in the Ocean.” I say as I open my bag of deliciousness. I take one of the pink candy straws out of the bag and stick it in my mouth, stopping myself from moaning at the strawberry sour flavor that explodes in my mouth.

“What thosssse?” he asks, pointing towards the bag in my hand.

“What I’ve been craving for the last three weeks.”

He cocks his head to the side. “Craving?”

“Ok, so have you ever wanted to eat something really badly and you just couldn’t get the idea of that food out of your head?” I ask, and he nods. “Well, pregnancy causes people to have that all the time.”

“Try?” he asks, and I nod; taking one straw out and handing it to him. He brings it up to his nose and smells it carefully before bringing it to his mouth. His eyes widen, and he looks towards the bag with glee.

“You like them?” I ask, and he nods enthusiastically, reaching forward to snatch the bag out of my hand. He grabs three more straws and shovels them into his mouth. “Damn.” He swallows and gives me a sheepish look, whipping his mouth with one hand while extending the bag back towards me. I shake my head. “I can get more.” He smiles and continues eating while I walk out of his enclosure and walk over to my desk to grab his file.

_Day 2. Subject 7321 has acquired a taste for human food; specifically Sour Punch Straws, the Strawberry kind._

**Day 8. Exploring the Office**

“So how did you learn to speak English?” I ask, watching Jared explore my office from my lazy boy chair.

“Ty,” he answers, slithering over to my desk and picking up one of the picture frames. He gives me a questioning look. “Who?” he asks, pointing picture held within the frame.

“That’s me and my brother a couple of years ago.” He nods his head and sets it down. “Who’s Ty?”

“Human man.” He reaches for my mug filled with green tea, takes a sniff, and sets it down quickly. “Grossss.” He shudders, and I chuckle.

“Yeah, I miss my coffee.” He hums sympathetically. “You know what coffee tastes like?”

He nods. “Ty,” he says as means of explanation.

“So this guy taught you English and exposed you to coffee?” He nods. “How do you even know him?”

“Live in houssse by village.” He says, opening one of my drawers. “Learn nature.” I narrow my eyes in confusion.

“Is he like me?”

“Ssscientissst?” he asks, and I nod. “Don’t know.” I nod. “Ty got hurt, we help him; we watch and learn.”

“So, essentially you studied him and human culture.”

“Like you? Yesss.” He says with a pleased smile, and I can’t help but chuckle as he continues his search of my drawers. A moment later, he pulls out an article of clothing and holds it up. “Hoodie?” he asks.

“Yeah; did Ty give you clothes?” I ask, curious as to how he knows what a ‘hoodie’ is.

“Yessss; human clothessss better.” He turns the hoodie around to see the cartoon on the front. “From TV?” he asks, indicating to the picture of Batman on the front.

“TV and comic books. Have you watched TV before?” I ask, and he shakes his head.

“Computer…Netflix?”

“Holy shit, you know what Netflix is.” I say with a laugh, continuing to watch him study the hoodie. “Would you like to keep that?” I ask, and his head whips towards me.

“Really?” he asks with childlike joy.

I nod. “I’m huge dude,” I say, gesturing towards my pregnant belly. “I can’t even get it over my stomach.”

“Thank you!” he says; hugging the hoodie to his chest happily.

“Why don’t you look through there and see if there is anything else you like; hell the only things in there that still fit me are my sweatpants.”

He gives me a curious look. “Why clothesss here?”

I shrug. “I stay here overnight sometimes,” I answer and he nods before continuing his search. Once he’s distracted, I grab his file.

_Day 8. Subject 7321 informed me that he briefly observed human culture from someone named ‘Ty’. Because of Ty, Jared (and others within his tribe) learned how to speak English and learned about other human cultural things such as clothes, Netflix, and coffee. Should continue to explore this information to see what else subject has learned about human culture._

**Day 13. Mate**

_Day 13. Subject 7321’s shoulder seems to be healing nicely. No infection has manifested. The stitches have begun to dissolve into his skin. Within the next few days, I plan on having him perform some simple exercises to make sure his shoulder didn’t sustain further damage._

“Where mate?” Jared asks, breaking me from my concentration.

“What?”

He slithers up towards the desk, pulling at the sleeve of his – my – black hoodie nervously. “You have baby…” he trails off, wanting me to fill in the blanks so he doesn’t have to.

“There is no mate,” I say, and he looks at me with calculating eyes. “There were six shots of tequila, three surprise drinks, a charming guy by the name of Olsson, and a faulty condom, though,” I say, putting my pen down and leaning back in my chair, chuckling humorlessly. “The sad thing is that out of the few drunken hookups I’ve had, he was the only one I didn’t regret…but then I tried to find him again once I found out I was pregnant and it’s kinda hard to do that when there are no records of an Olsson in this area at all.” Jared moves closer to me, a sad look in his eyes. I shrug and force a smile onto my face. “Hey, don’t mind me being all whiny and shit; didn’t you want to watch Adventure Time on Netflix?” I reach forward to grab my laptop, but a hand on my arm stops me.

“You good; take good care of baby alone. Good man,” he says with a smile.

“Well, what about you?” I ask quickly, wanting to get myself off of the ‘other father’ topic. “Do you have a mate?”

He shakes his head. “No, but clossse.” I raise an eyebrow.

“Who is she?” I ask, and he smiles.

“Human name Genevieve.” He says with a happy expression in his eyes, and I can’t help but chuckle.

“You sly dog.” He gives me a questioning look. “It’s a human expression, don’t worry about it.” He nods. “Tell me about her.”

“Gen great hunter, kind, funny…” he trails off, sadness entering his eyes as he continues to think about his conquest. “Misssss her.”

“I’ll make sure you get back to her.” He looks at me with hopeful eyes.

“Promissse?” he asks.

“You’re results are good so far; you should be out of here within the next few weeks.” He smiles, hope entering his eyes.

“Sssee; Jen good man to Jared, will be good for baby.” He says before quickly slithering away towards his open enclosure, not letting me argue with him.

**Day 20: Sonograms**

I unlock my office door with a smile on my face, only to be greeted by an upset looking Jared as I open the door.

“Late.” He says, and I sigh guiltily.

“I’m sorry, I guess I should have told you yesterday that I was going to be a little late,” I say as I close the door behind me.

“Why?” he asks, and I can’t stop a smile from forming.

“I had a doctor’s appointment.”

“Ok?” he asks worriedly.

“I went to a baby doctor for a normal checkup.” His face goes from worried to happy in seconds.

“Baby good?” he asks, and I nod happily.

“She’s doing great.” I think for a second. “Want to see a picture?”

He gives me a confused look, and points towards my bulging stomach. “How?”

I open the envelope in my hands and pull out one of the new sonogram pictures, showing it to him.

“That baby?” I nod. “Wow.”

“It’s called a sonogram; they use this wand with petroleum jelly over my stomach to get images,” I say, not wanting to confuse him more with a detailed description.

“When baby come?” he asks, slithering backwards to let me sit down at my desk chair.

“My due date is in about two weeks, but she could come any time.”

His eyes widen. “Sssssoon.” I nod. “Worried?” he asks, and I nod.

“I’m terrified, but excited you know?”

He nods his head. “Thisss cool; keep?” he asks, gesturing towards the picture in his hand.

“Um, sure?”

He grins and quickly slithers towards his ever growing pile of possessions.  

**Day 25: Hormonal outbursts and hugs**

“ _I’m sorry Jen.”_ Is the first thing Josh says when I answer his phone call.

“Wait, why are you sorry?” I ask, looking up to see Jared giving me a worried expression.

“ _I can’t come out there this week,”_ he says, and my stomach drops.

“What do you mean you can’t come out here? You promised me that you’d be here!”

_“My boss is a homophobic asshole Jen! I requested the time off months ago, but when he found out I was flying to Washington so I could be with my brother---”_

I cut him off. “He heard that I was a carrier and about to have a baby and threatened to fire your ass.” I say, and I hear him sigh over the receiver.

_“I’m so sorry Jen.”_ I swallow thickly. “ _But Karrie’s hours got cut and I…_ ” he trails off.

“I don’t want you risking your job; you have three kids under the age of ten; they don’t deserve to suffer because their uncle is being selfish.”

_“Shut the fuck up Jensen! You’re not selfish; you’re having a baby alone for god sakes!”_

_“_ Yeah, keyword here being _alone_.” Josh stays silent over the phone, not knowing what to say.

Josh is the only member of my family that has supported me since I came out. My parents knew I was a carrier from early on, but they hoped and prayed that I wouldn’t ‘catch the gay’ or some such bullshit. When I was eighteen with a full scholarship to college, I came out, and as I walked out the door towards my packed up car, my father yelled after me that I was no longer an Ackles. Three weeks later, after classes had started up, I was awoken at three in the morning by my brother pounding on the door and demanding that I let him in. From that day on, I knew that I had at least one family member who was there for me, and Josh has supported me ever since. Hell, he’s the only person who knows I work for a secret government facility. Sure, he doesn’t know that I study creatures that shouldn’t exist, but he knows that I’m part of something unbelievable and sometimes I just need my big brother to call and calm me down.

“ _What about Jeff or Jim; they both love you like you are their own flesh and blood, they’d be more than happy to be there while you’re in labor.”_

“I don’t want them anywhere near me when I’m pushing a kid out of my fucking body, Josh!” I take a deep breath as I feel my eyes start to burn. “Is it wrong that I really want mom?”

Josh makes a sad noise over the phone. _“No it’s not, Jen.”_ He sighs. “ _Look, I gotta go but I’ll call you later tonight. We’ll figure something out ok?”_

“Yeah,” is all I can muster without my voice cracking. Josh tries to say something, but just sighs and ends the call.

“Jen?” Jared asks and I look up, hastily wiping the tears from my eyes.

“I’m ok.” He gives me a look that clearly reads ‘bullshit’ and I sigh. “Ok, so I’m crying and stuff…but I’ll be ok,” I say, trying to fake a smile, but failing miserably as tears continue to fall.

“Don’t cry, Jen.” And with those words, any control I had over my emotions breaks. I bring my hand up to cover eyes and lean forward, resting my elbow on my desk. As I begin to cry harder, I feel warm arms wrap around me. “Everything be ok.” As I continue to sob in Jared’s arms, a thought occurs to me in the back of my head…Jared has become a friend, not just another subject that I studied while stitching up.

**Day 30: Email.**

“So, I’m guessing Jared and Misha are getting along?” Jim asks as we walk towards my office, and I chuckle; having just left Jared and Misha in Jeff’s office.

“Getting along would be putting it mildly; Misha has found his new partner in crime.”

Jim groans, “God damn it.”

I roll my eyes as I unlock my door.

“So what did you want me to look at?” Jim asks as I walk over towards my desk to pull out some X-rays printouts.

“I wanted a second opinion on these. Jared let me take X-rays of his snake half for research purposes yesterday.”

“And what did he demand in return?” Jim asks, a knowing smile touching his features.

“He demanded ten bags of those sour punch straws, a bag of gummy worms and a large cup of coffee.” He chuckles as I drop into my office chair.

“That’s what you get for introducing the big guy to candy.”

I give Jim a glare. “Hey, it’s not my fault I was craving that stuff and the only reason he wanted the damn coffee was to make me suffer.” He rolls his eyes. “But, let’s focus here; tell me what you think,” I say, pointing towards the x-rays in his hand as I boot up my computer.

“I’m surprised you didn’t do this earlier, son.”

“Like Jared would let me; he was curious about everything and I didn’t want to scare him.” I pull up my email, and dread washes over me instantly. “Oh fuck.”

“What?” Jim asks, setting down the papers in his hand.

“Mark emailed me.” I answer as I click open the email. “It says he wants to meet with me on Thursday at three.”

Jim crosses his arms over his chest. “So it doesn’t say what the meeting is about?”

I shake my head and lean back in my chair, cupping my arms under my stomach for support. “You know Mark; anytime he wants to see you it’s bad.”

“Maybe he just wants to see your results with Jared; this place has never seen one of his kind before.”

I shrug my shoulders as I stare at my computer, hoping that Jim is right and that I’m just blowing this out of proportion.

**Day 32: Doomsday**

I sit in Mark Pellegrino’s office, waiting for the man in question to actually make his appearance.

I feel like shit. I mean, hell, I’ve been feeling like shit for the last month and a half really; but, I was able to power through it with Jared’s progress distracting me. Last night, no matter what I did, I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat, and was having Braxton hick contractions like no one’s business. When Jeff saw me this morning, he instantly grabbed my upper arm and practically dragged me into his office to use his emergency lab stay bed, telling me he would look after Jared until this afternoon.

No matter what Jeff or Jim have told me, I know that what Mark wants is going to be bad. I don’t even know how he’s the director of this lab, I mean, fuck, he seems to hate every creature that comes in here. He doesn’t actually do any lab work of his own, and he’s usually only here for a week every couple months. To me, the man is the fucking Devil.

“Jensen!”

My head shoots up at my name being called. I move to stand up, but Mark waves his hand.

“Don’t get up.” He closes his office door behind him and makes his way towards his desk. “Any day now, right?” he asks, pointing at my stomach with a smile which doesn’t reach his eyes.

I nod my head. “Yep, any day now.”

He sits down in his desk chair and nods. “So, I’m guessing from your face right now that you want me to cut the pleasantries and get right to the point?” he asks and I nod. He leans back in his chair and sighs ‘sadly’, and it’s then that I know this meeting can only lead to something horrible. “I was looking at the scans you took of Subject 7321 and noticed some things in its human half that I would like to examine further.”

“Do you need me to run another MRI or something?” I ask, and he shakes his head.

“I was hoping for some more…detailed research if you will,” he says, and my stomach drops.

“Are you saying that you want me to cut Ja-, I mean Subject 7321, open to study his organs in detail?”

He nods, looking relieved that he didn’t need to say the words out loud. “We’ve done it with creatures in the past and were able to help others with the data we collected.”

“The creatures we studied were already deceased.” I deadpan; unable to fully take in what Mark is telling me to do. “What you’re asking me to do will kill him.” He shrugs, and my hand tightens into a fist at his movements.   

“You’re performing a simple surgical procedure to help us with similar creatures of his species in the future; this isn’t a death sentence.”

I snort humorlessly. “Yes; a twenty percent survival rate are _great_ odds.” I say sarcastically. His eyes narrow dangerously and, in response, I rest my hand on the outward curve of my stomach protectively.

“Do you really want to question me when you’re so close to giving birth?” he asks, and I swallow nervously at what he’s suggesting; if I question what he does, he’ll make my life a living hell. “But anyway,” he says in a more cheerful voice, the dangerous expression in his eyes no longer present. “We won’t perform the surgery until you get back from paternity leave. I want one of the other scientists to run more tests on the subject until you get back, and then we’ll prepare the subject for surgery immediately.” My heart races as he continues to plan Jared ultimate demise. “Any questions?” he asks, and I shake my head.

_Fuck……Jared…._

**Chapter 3: Escape Plans and Problems**

“Where you go?” Jared asks as I walk into my lab, locking the door behind me to make sure no unwanted visitors come in.

“I had a meeting earlier this afternoon.” I rush towards my cabinet to look for a backpack.

“Hoursss ago?” He protests, and I shrug.

“I needed to think for a while.” I finally find the backpack in question and turn around to face him. “Take this.”

He takes the bag out of my hands. “Why?”

I swallow nervously. “I need you to pack up all of your things, and then we’re going to wait until later tonight to get you out of here.”

His eyes widen in shock. “Jen?” He moves closer to me. “What’ssss going on?” he questions. I look at him silently for a few moments, considering my options before taking a deep, calming, breath.

“If I don’t get you out of here tonight, my boss is going to make me do something that could kill you.”

His eyes widen. “WHAT?!?” He practically screeches.

I take a step forward; making shushing sounds to try and calm him down. “That’s why you need to pack up, and then you and me are going to try and figure out the fastest way to get you home.”

“You help me go home?” he asks, and I nod. Worry comes across his face. “Baby sssoon…” he states, and I shake my head.

“Me and my baby are going to be fine; right now I’m more worried about you.” He bites his bottom lip nervously. “It’s about quarter after eight right now; I’d like to get you out of here at one.”

“What about you?” he asks. “Bossss bad man.” He states. Over the past month, Jared has overheard me and Jeff complaining about Mark, and essentially knows how evil of a man he is.

“If I get in trouble for this, my brother is going to look after my daughter for me; that’s part of the reason why I was late, I called him to warn him about all of this.” I called at five, and we finally got off the phone at 7:30. After the first hour, I was able to get him to promise me to look after my little girl if I end up going to jail over this; then it took me an additional hour to get him to trust my judgment without knowing more than what I’m about to do is saving a life. “Get packing; I’ll grab us a map of the ar--” a strong cramp in my stomach cuts me off, and the force of it makes me groan in pain.

“Jensssen!” I feel large hands reach for me as I bend forward, pressing one of my hands into the flesh of my stomach while the other one supports me upwards on the desk.

“I’m fine.” I huff out as the cramping eases off. “I’m fine; this whole thing is just really stressful right now; I’ll feel better once we have a plan.”

“Sssure?” he asks worriedly, and I nod; forcing a smile onto my lips.

“It was a Braxton Hicks contraction; I’ve been having them for a while now.” Before now I’ve been able to hide them from Jared; I’ve been in worse pain before so a Braxton Hicks is nothing….but that was one of the worst ones I have ever felt, and due to the situation, they’re probably gonna get worse. “Just get packing.” He nods, and slowly removes his hand from my arm. He quickly moves towards his stuff and packs his new possessions into the bag as I sit down at my desk, and pull out the maps I printed at home earlier.

“Ty live closssse by.” Jared says as he zips up his bag. “Live in sssmall housssse.”

“Are there any other houses close to you guys?” I ask, and he shakes his head. “How has no one ever found you before?”

He shrugs. “Village in cave,” he answers. “Hard to enter unlessss one of usss.”

I nod, spreading the maps out to look for houses in the middle of nowhere. “So there are no roads by you? Have you ever seen a car?”

“Ty hasss one.”

I push aside several of the maps that show roads or clusters of buildings, and as I turn back towards the other maps, something catches my eye. “Are you in an underground cave?” I ask as I pull the sheet closer, and he nods. “I think I might have found it.” He quickly moves towards the desk and looks at the map in my hands. “This is a satellite image.” I say, pointing to the miniature grey speck. “That’s the roof of a house.” I set the paper back down onto my desk. “Did Ty teach you about distance at all?” I ask, and ne nods hesitantly. “Do you know how far away his house is from your village?”

“Thirty minutesss.”

I bite my bottom lip in concentration as I calculate the distance in my head, and a few minutes later my eyes widen in shock. “You’re village is like an hour away from here; how haven’t we ever seen one of your species before?”

A proud smile makes its way onto his face. “Hidden tunnelssss to village.”

“And I’m guessing that there is a mineral in the stone that keeps you guys from being detected…” I trail off, thinking out loud.

“What?” Jared asks, and I shake my head.

“Don’t worry about it.” I take out a bigger map of the area and a red marker; circling two points. “This is where we are now.” I say, pointing towards a large white square. “And this is where you are from.” I say, pointing towards the red circle. “When we’re ready, I’ll take you towards a door that is on the northern wall of the facility.”

“Jussst usss?” Jared asks, and I nod; looking him straight in the eye. “Not Jeff and Jim?”

“The less people involved in this, the better it is.” He looks at me nervously. “Everything’s gonna be fine; I promise.”

++++++++++++++++++++++++++Time Skip: 12:53am++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

After extensive planning, hacking into the facilities security camera feed from my laptop, and three more Braxton Hicks contractions, everything is set into place.

“You have your bag?”

“Yessss.”

“You looked through my stuff and grabbed everything you wanted?” Jared nods, tugging nervously at his black hoodie sleeve. “I put black electrical tape over the reflectors of your backpack.” I say to myself, checking off more boxes in my mental list. “Put your hood up.” Jared does as he’s told. “When we get to the doors?”

“Go north; keep low.” Jared says as a practiced response.

“If I tell you to do something?”

“Do it.”

“And when you get back to your village?”

“Warn otherssss not to leave and warn Ty.” Jared responds.

I nod, swallowing thickly. “I guess this is goodbye then…” I trail off.

Sadness enters Jared’s hooded eyes. “Ever ssseee you again?” he asks, and I shrug.

“After this I’ll probably be watched twenty four seven; it’s safer if I don’t.”

He stays silent for a moment before slithering forward. As he moves, he lifts himself up from the ground with his muscular snake tail before wrapping his arms around me. “Missss you.”

I return the hug as my eyes begin to burn. “I’ll miss you to buddy.”

He pulls away, but keeps his hands on my shoulders. “Keep baby sssafe.” He says, staring into my eyes.

I chuckle lightly. “And you need to make sure you never get captured again.”

He huffs. “Hunting bear and got hurt! Not fault!”

I bring my hand up to wipe away a tear that happened to escape. “Yeah yeah.” I move out of his grasp and over to the computer. “Once I mess with the cameras, we should have about five minutes before the guard on duty notices that three hallways worth of footage is missing.” I tap into the twelve cameras and turn them off and take a deep breath before hurrying towards my door. “Stay close to me.” He nods as I open the door. “Hurry.”

We move through the halls quickly, staying alert for any noises coming our way. Usually at this time of night, no one is ever around; the scientists have either gone home or are in their labs, and the night time security guards are patrolling the opposite side of the building. When we’re halfway to our destination, some of the panic I had been feeling before starts to ease. _Jared will be long gone before Mark finds out about this; at least I’m not fucking myself over for nothing._ I think to myself, but just as we begin to turn the corner towards the last ninety feet of building before the door, the ceiling light beam brightens and an alarm begins to wail. Over the piercing sound of the alarm, I can hear the voice of a security guard yelling behind us.

“Fuck!” I look to the right to see Jared’s terrified eyes staring right at me. “Come on!” I grab onto his arm and drag him forward, willing myself to run despite my largely pregnant stomach fucking up my balance. “Almost there!” I state as we rush closer towards the exit. When we’re about twenty feet from the door, I hear shouting.

“IF YOU DON’T STOP RIGHT NOW, ACKLES, I’LL SHOOT!” he screams as I crash my hand down onto the door handle, slamming it open and practically throwing Jared outside.

“GO!” I yell towards Jared, before spinning around to face the oncoming guard. The guard tries to push me out of the way to aim his tranquilizer gun at Jared, but the adrenalin rushing through my body allows me to push back. I try to get the large gun out of his hands, giving Jared time to get out of range, but the next thing I know someone is slamming something hard into the back of my head.

“JEN!!!” I hear Jared’s voice screech as everything goes black.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A burning sensation that starts in my lower back and makes a painful tight band around my stomach is what brings me back to conscious. As a painful hiss escapes my lips, I feel a warm hand press onto my arm gently.

“Jen?” A voice asks in a worried tone. “You awake?”

I slowly open my eyes, and am presented with a blurry Jared positioned in front of me. “Jared?” I ask, and his blurry form nods. “What?”

“Guard hit back of head.” Jared answers.

I lazily bring my hand up to feel the back of my head and hiss in pain when my hand makes contact with a sizable bump. “Well that explains why my head is killing me.” I slowly try to push myself up from the cushion I’m lying on, but am hit with a wave of nausea as I get more upright. “Fuck.” I sway to the side and Jared grabs both of my shoulders firmly to keep me up.

“What wrong Jen?” he asks worriedly.

“I’m pretty sure I’ve got a concussion.” I force my eyes to focus on Jared. “Does one of my pupils look bigger than the other one?” I ask, and he cocks his head in confusion. “Does the black part of my eye look bigger on one side?” I simplify, and he leans forward to look deeply into my eyes.

“Yessss.”

“Oh that’s just fucking fantastic.” My vision begins to focus more, and it’s then that I notice that we aren’t in the science facility. “Jared…where are we?”

“My home.”

“Wait…. you escaped?” I ask, and he nods. A relieved smile makes its way onto my face and I sigh. “Thank god.” Once the relief fades, confusion emerges. “Wait…why am I here?”

“I sssaw guard hurt you….” He trails off, biting his lip nervously as he tries to find the right words to use. “I fought guard, grabbed you and fled here.”

“Why did you help me?”

He rolls his eyes. “You help me,” he says as an answer.

“No one followed you, did they?” I ask, and Jared shakes his head.

“Came here fassst.”

I look around to get a better idea of where I am.

The far wall to the right is a mix of dirt and stone, while the rest of the walls look to be made out of some form of fabric. In the center of the room, there is a battery operated lantern, which was most likely provided by Ty. It illuminates the area in artificial yellow light. Back on the stone wall, several spears are hanging on a wooden rack along with wooden shields. From what Jared has told me, he is one of the main hunters for his village; hunting for food, and fighting off enemies when needed. Laid before the fabric wall across from me are several piles of human goods, animal hides and food, as well as the backpack I had given Jared before we left. As I turn my head towards the right, I see several other blankets similar to the one I’m on piled up.

Just as I am about to open my mouth, another wave of pain radiates from my lower back, causing my stomach muscles to contract painfully. I groan as I lean forward, pressing my right hand into my stomach and using the other to brace me upright.

“Jen?” Jared asks worriedly.

“Oh my god…” I trail off; fear bubbling up in my chest as the contraction passes.

“Jen what wrong?”

“I…I think that was a contraction…” I trail off.

“Like in lab?” he asks and I shake my head.

“No, like ‘my baby’s coming’ type of contractions.” His eyes widen.

“Sssure?” He asks, and I nod as I push myself up from Jared’s make shift bed. “What you doing?” Jared asks worriedly as I shakily stand up.

“I need to get out of here.” I say, taking a wobbly step forward. At the new altitude, my head begins to spin; causing me to fall forward. Jared rushes forward to catch me.

“Jensssen!”

“I’m fine.” I say once I’m more balanced. “I need to get out of here,” I repeat like a broken record.

“Jen; dangerousssss.” He argues, but continues to hold onto me as I take wobbly steps towards the fabric entrance of his home.

“I----” I cut myself off as I pull back the fabric and am greeted with the sight of an underground wonderland. Similar Tepee structures like Jared’s, as well as what look to be like Adobe houses, dwell under a rock filled sky. I look around rapidly, trying to find a way to get out of this underground village, but find nothing…

“Oh my god….” I breathe out as Jared squeezes my arms gently. “I’m not getting out of here….am I?” I say, too focused on looking at the amazing scenery around me to see Jared’s reaction to my defeated tone. “Oh fuck,” I gasp as feel panic begin to rise up in my chest.

“Calm down, Jen.” Jared says slowly, pulling me back away from the outside.

“I…I can’t have my daughter here Jared!!!” I screech, finally turning to see Jared’s panic filled eyes looking at me. “I was going to have her in a hospital with doctors and machines and fucking drugs Jared; DRUGS!!!!!”

“Sssshhhh,” he hisses in a soothing tone.

“Oh, don’t you tell me to sshh,” I say, pulling my arms out of his grip. I attempt to turn away from the fabric door when my knees give out again. “Fucking concussion!” I yell after Jared catches me again.

“Sssit.”

“I need human medical care right now Jared!” I screech again as he leads me towards his make shift bed.

“Ty coming,” he says as I plop back down. I swallow thickly.

“What?”

“Genevieve hurry to get Ty; tell him pregnant man hurt.”

Even though I shouldn’t be somewhat relieved by this, for all I fucking know this guy is a psychotic killer, the panic dies down a tiny bit. I mean, even if I got out of here, I wouldn’t be able to get to human civilization in time. With the concussion messing with my ability to walk and think properly, not knowing how fast this labor is going to go, and that my boss is probably out there looking for me, I would most likely either be giving birth alone in the woods or in a jail cell.

“God I’m so scared right now,” I force out, bringing a shaking hand up to wipe under my eye nervously.

Jared bites his lip with pointed teeth nervously before moving to settle next to me. “Be ok,” he says, reaching out to touch my stomach lightly. “Baby girl be fine; I make sssure.”

I open my mouth to say something, but someone rushing into Jared’s home cuts me off. It takes me a second to register the large man before me, but something clicks in my mind that has my eyes widen and my heart stop. “O-Olsson?”

The man’s head whips towards my voice, and he gasps. “Ackles?”

“You’re fucking Ty?”

Olsson, or apparently Ty, nods his head; too shocked to talk.

Jared taps my shoulder to get my attention and he points towards the other man. “Wait…Olsssson…like baby father?” he asks, remembering our conversation from several days ago, and I nod.

“Holy fucking shit.” Is the last thing Ty says before I get attacked by a bout of nausea, both from stress and the concussion, and I quickly lean to my right to throw up on the rock ground.

**Chapter 4: Birth of a Miracle.**

“You ok,” Jared says soothingly as I continue to hurl; rubbing my back in soothing circles until I finish retching.

“God, I’m sorry,” I say as I wipe the mouth with the back of my hand.

“Don’t be.” I look up to see Olsson…Ty, looking solely at my stomach; an unreadable expression on his face.

“Take a picture; it’ll last longer,” I snap, bringing my hands up to hold my stomach protectively.

“Sorry, I just….This is kind of a shock…” I swallow thickly and nod. Another contraction hits me, stronger than the last one, and I hiss in pain. “Are you ok?” Ty asks worriedly, taking a step closer.

Once the contraction passes I look up at him. “Um…I’m kinda in labor and have a pretty bad concussion…”

His eyes widen and he comes all the way over to me; crouching down a couple feet in front of me. He leans forward to look into my eyes. “Shit.”

“Back of head hit with gun,” Jared says quietly, answering Ty’s unasked question. His eyes widen before looking down at my stomach for a moment.

“Hey, Jared; why don’t you get us some water and some smaller blankets. When Gen came to get me, I only had time to really grab my sweatshirt, a flashlight and the first aid kit,” Ty instructs.

Jared looks to me, silently asking me if I’m ok with being alone with the other man for a few minutes.

“I’ll be fine, go and get the stuff….hell, hang with your lady for a while.” A nervous smile makes its way up to his face. “This whole thing could take a while.”

He nods; squeezing my shoulder briefly before slithering out of his home.

“How many contractions have you had?” Ty asks, opening his first aid kit.

“I’m aware of two, but I could have had some while I was out.”

He nods his head and scoots closer to me. “Could I check out where you were hit?” he asks, and I shift around until my back is facing him. He cards his hands through my hair, and whistles. “Damn that’s a big bump.”

“Is there blood?”

“Yep; but it looks like it stopped a while ago.” He touches a tender area and I wince. “Sorry.” I shrug as he continues talking. “I’m going to disinfect it ok?”

“Go ahead.”

As I hear him rustle around in his first aid kit, I go over the last twenty or so minutes in my head. I’m in labor with a concussion, underground in some unknown village, with the father of my child. I mean, fuck, over the last several months I had imagined running into him, but never like this.

“What the hell did you get yourself into?” Ty asks, pulling me out of my thoughts as touches my head with something cold and wet. “I know that Jared went missing, and we have all been looking for him but…”

I sigh. “Let me introduce myself properly,” I say. When we met all those months ago at a bar, we decided to only introduce ourselves with last names. Why we did it, I don’t know; we were both kind of drunk and thought it was bad ass. “I’m Doctor Jensen Ackles and I work for the government at New Origins Corporation. It’s a secret government agency that deals with creatures that, to human knowledge, shouldn’t exist…” I trail off, and he makes a noise to cue me to keep going. “Jared got hurt about a month ago and was found by one of our scientists. He was brought to our facility and it was my job to take care of him and study him.”

“What?” he asks incredulously.

“Believe me, I hate this job, but I use it as a way to help the creatures and treat them like people instead of test subjects.”

“But how did you even get into it?”

I hiss as pressure is put onto the swollen area of my head, and he quickly apologizes. “They heard about my work and convinced me to sign a shit ton of legal documents and shipped me up here. Within the first hour on the job, I screamed, passed out, was threatened with prison and had a panic attack in the women’s bathroom.” He squeezes my shoulder to let me know he’s finished, and I scoot back until my back is propped up against the hard cave wall. “But now, I’ll go to prison because I decided to help Jared escape, and after I give birth I’ll probably never see my daughter again…” I trail off as my eyes begin to burn. I look up to see him swallow thickly; his eyes downcast.

“There are a lot of things I want to ask you right now…but I don’t want to upset you more than you already are.”

I shrug and wrap my arms around my stomach. “Might as well; might kill some time r--” I’m cut off by a tightness in my stomach. “Contraction.” I hiss out as the burning sensation wraps around my torso.

Ty looks at his digital watch. “I think it’s been about seven minutes since the last one.” He looks back at me as the contraction tapers off. “Did that hurt badly?”

“They’re not too bad yet.” He nods. “What did you want to ask?”

“Did you try contacting me once you knew that you were pregnant?”

“Of course I did; do you seriously think I would try to keep something like this a secret!?!” I snap just as Jared comes back.

“Ty, sssstop!” He quickly slithers over towards us and dumps his woven basket of items onto the ground in front of Ty. “What doing?”

“I---” he starts, but I cut him off.

“He didn’t do anything wrong; I’m just on edge right now.” I take a deep breath. “God I’m so fucking tired…” I trail off, bringing my right hand up to pinch the bridge of my nose. On top of everything else, I feel so fucking exhausted to the point of breaking down and crying my eyes out.

“Ssssleep.” Jared says in a soothing voice, realizing just how close to cracking I am.

“I can’t risk it.”

Ty gives me a worried look. “From what I could tell, where you were hit swelled completely outward; I think it would be ok if you get some sleep.” I look at him with tired eyes. “I’ll wake you up in two hours if the contractions don’t wake you up before then.” I look at him for a moment before nodding my head carefully, trying not to jerk it too much to make my headache worse. “Do you remember the bar’s name where we met?” he asks.

I narrow my eyes in confusion. “Marko’s; why?”

He gives me a small, tired, grin. “That’ll be the question I ask you when you wake up.” He pulls out a smartphone from the small bag next to him. “Sleep; I’m going to do some research about carrier births while you’re out.”

I nod my head once more. “Thanks.”

He shrugs. “You’re in labor; you’re going to need all the sleep you can get Ack..I mean Jensen.”

I force a small smile onto my face before I let my tiredness take control. Jared helps me lay down, and once my head hits something soft, I’m out like a light.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A powerful contraction forces me to wake up, causing me to sit up and fold myself over my stomach.

“Fuck!” I feel large hands grab onto my shoulders.

“Just breath through it, Jensen.” Ty’s voice whispers soothingly in my ear. As I take a breath, I feel a tearing sensation between my legs, along with a strong burst of fluid.

“Oh god….” I groan out as the contraction tappers off; embarrassed about what had just happened. “I’m so fucking sorry! You didn’t sign up for this bullshi--” he cuts me off.

“Hey, look at me.” I turn my head to see Ty staring at me with concerned filled eyes. “I’m going to be blunt here man: we’ve had sex before, yeah we were wasted but I remember the naked part clearly, nothing that happens in this place is going to faze me.” I look down at my lap, and wince at the spreading wetness. “Let’s get you standing so you can change.” He grabs onto my shoulders. “Jared!” He calls once I’m standing.

“You’re taking this all a lot better than before I fell asleep,” I say offhand.

He shrugs. “You’re going through hell right now; you don’t deserve me freaking out about all of this on top of that.”

Jared rushes through the fabric door like a bat out of hell. “What wrong?” he asks, then his gaze narrows in on my wet pants. “What that?”

I sigh.

“His water just broke,” Ty answers, but that seems to confuse Jared even more.

“When women and male carriers give birth, the fluids surrounding the baby burst while they’re in labor.” He considers my words for a moment before nodding. I grab onto my maternity jeans. “Um…could you guys turn around?” Both Jared and Ty turn around and go over towards the makeshift bed to replace the blankets; giving me the privacy I need to get out of my pants and check the birth canal.

I slide out of my wet jeans and boxers, kicking them out of my way. I look over my shoulder to make sure both Jared and Ty are preoccupied before reaching my hand down to feel the dilated opening.

“Oh god, this is going too fast.” I breathe out as I remove a shaky hand from down under, grabbing a blanket and quickly wrapping it around my waist.

“What’s wrong?” Ty asks, turning around once I’m somewhat decent.

“I’m pretty sure I’m about six centimeters dilated.”

His eyes widen. “Shit….” He looks at the blanket wrapped around me. “Do you want to wear my pajama pants?” he asks, messing with the drawstring.

“I don’t think that would be-fuuuuck.” I groan as another contraction pounds into me; forcing me to grab onto the stone wall for support.

“I think the last contraction was about four minutes ago,” Ty says once the contraction wears off. He pulls at the drawstring of his pants and slides them off; leaving him in a sweatshirt and boxer-briefs. “Wear these; you look like you’re wearing a skirt or something.” He says, walking over to me to hand me the pants in question.

“Thanks…” I trail off as he turns around.

“Head better?” Jared asks as I carefully pull the pajama bottoms on; tightening the waist band bellow my swollen stomach.

“I still have a headache but I’m better than before.” I stand still for a few moments; noticing that the pressure in my back is more tolerable when standing.

“What doing?” Jared asks with his head cocked to the side in confusion; watching me begin to pace with my left hand cupped under my stomach for support.

“I feel better standing up,” I answer, and as I slowly turn around I see Ty watching me nervously.

“Shouldn’t you be resting?” he asks; wringing his hands.

“This will actually move things along faster.” He looks at me for a moment before nodding his head. “Can I have some water?” I ask, and Jared is quick to act; grabbing an obviously store bought bottle, and quickly slithering over to me. “Thanks.” I stop in my tracks to open the bottle, taking a couple little sips before handing it back to Jared.

“Aren’t you supposed to chew ice or something?” Ty asks once I resume my pacing, moving towards me.

“I thought you said you did research.” He shrugs.

“Yeah, I researched dilation, tearing and CPR; not active labor stuff,” he says sheepishly.

“They don’t usually want people drinking water once in active labor in case they need to perform a C-section.” He nods his head. I open my mouth to ask a question, but am caught off guard by a powerful contraction that causes my knees to give out. Ty catches me in a steady grip before I can hit the floor, keeping his hands in place until the contraction wears off.

“I’m an author, that’s why you couldn’t find a person by the name of Olsson in the area; my books are published under the name Benny Lafitte,” Ty says offhandedly as I begin my pacing again, this time with Ty’s hand steadily holding onto my arm. “I was in the middle of a rough patch and decided to move out here for some inspiration.”

“Why are you telling me all this?” I feel him shrug.

“You probably broke several laws telling me about your job; I might as well tell you a little bit about myself.”

“Well you already knew about Jared and his people so…” I trail off, looking over to see that Jared has left his home to give us some privacy. In any other situation, I would feel terrible for making Jared feel like he can’t be in his home after being away for so long…but I really don’t want him seeing me like this.

“I moved out here a little over two years ago. The book I was writing was based in a cabin in the woods so I thought moving out here would help me write.” I feel a contraction build up and stiffen in Ty’s hold. “Hey I’ve got ya,” Ty comforts softly as I breathe through the contraction. “I got a little drunk after a month of nothing and decided it would be a great idea to go on a drunken walk in the middle of an ice storm.”

“That was stupid,” I breathe out once the contraction passes, and he chuckles.

“Yeah; I kinda cringe thinking about it actually.” We start up our pacing again. “Anyway, the last thing I remembered was pain shooting through my leg, and then the next thing I knew there were these snake people surrounding me hissing at each other.” He gives me a sheepish look. “I may have screamed for a good twenty minutes,” he says with a laugh, and I can’t help but smile a little bit. “After I calmed down, I realized they had helped me, and well…there ya go.” He says, gesturing towards the lanterns he had obviously provided Jared with.

“So, that’s why you gave me the name Olsson; you didn’t want to get attached to me and risk me finding out about them?”

He nods. “After a while….Jared and the others kind of became my family; hell, they’ve adopted me into their village…I didn’t want to risk them becoming test subje--” he cuts himself off with a hiss and gives me a guilty look. “Sorry.”

I shake my head. “Hey I would have done the same thing.” We continue to pace, and after god only knows how many more laps around Jared’s home, and a million god damned contractions, Ty speaks.

“You know, I regretted just….leaving you alone the following morning,” he says as he helps me take off my sweatshirt, leaving me in a thin sleeveless t-shirt. “If I wasn’t trying to protect this village, I would have probably stayed and asked you out on a proper date.”

I stop in my tracks; letting Ty’s words fully sink in. He didn’t regret what had happened…he actually _liked_ me….I open my mouth to reply, but a powerful contraction forces me to yell out. “AHH!” My legs give way, forcing Ty to hold me upright as I fold myself over my rock hard stomach.

“What…Jen!?!” I hear Jared behind me, and a moment later I feel another pair of arms around me.

“I…I need to sit down,” I pant out once the contraction is over.

“Baby come?” Jared asks nervously as they slowly guide me towards the mat, gently guiding my body downwards.

“I-I don’t know I…Ty you need to check,” I groan out, weakly reaching out towards one of the smaller blankets piled next to me and handing it to Ty. “I can’t….” Ty shushes me.

“I got it; just try to focus on your breathing.” He reaches forward, but hesitates. “Are you sure?” he asks nervously.

“I can’t do this alone,” I say, and he nods his head before untying the drawstring of my pants and pulling them down, quickly placing the blanket over my thighs to keep me covered.

“I think you’re almost there,” Ty says nervously before bringing the blanket down over my feet. “Are---”

“God!” I screech as pain digs into my stomach.

“Well, that answers my question ‘are the contractions getting worse,’” He states as the pain dies down. “That was about two minutes,” he says, looking at his watch hesitantly.

“What time is it?” I ask; completely out of breath.

“It’s about eight in the morning,” he states.

I nod, before turning towards Jared. “You won’t want to be here for this.”

He gives me a hard look before slithering closer to me. “You friend,” he states; reaching out to grab onto my hand. “You help me, I there for you.” He gives my hand a gentle squeeze. “Not have baby alone,” he states, and I can’t help but feel touched by his words.

“You remember that call with my brother?” I ask, and he nods.

“Don’t like when cry,” He says, and I sigh, squeezing his hand back.

“Just…promise me you won’t like…look down there or anything. It’s bad enough that Ty has to.”

Ty clears his throat. “Again; sex, remember?”

I roll my eyes. “Yeah; but there wasn’t an opening there at the time and there wasn’t stretching or gross fluids or a baby either.” He gives me a pointed look. “Ok so two of the th—Fuck!” The pain catches me off guard.

“Be ok,” Jared says soothingly; rubbing my arm gently as the contraction dies down.

“I think she shifted lower,” I groan out, trying to shift my body into a more comfortable position but failing. “I want to lie down.”

“On your side?” Ty asks, and I nod. “Ok, Jared grab some of those blankets so we can prop them under Jensen’s stomach.” Ty orders as he leans forward to help me shift positions.

“Work?” Jared asks once I’m lying on my left side with my back facing the stone wall, a small blanket in his hands.

I nod and reach out for it; folding it over a few times before placing it under my stomach.

I lay in this position for a while, each contracting hitting me back to back that I can barely catch my breath anymore. Every time I swear, groan, scream or cry in pain, both Jared and Ty are there trying to calm me down. Even though I never expected to give birth this way…I’m thankful that I have them both here with me. I was going to do this alone: just me, the doctor and a few nurses; but now…I feel like I have emotional support while going through this.

And finally, after what seems like an eternity to my pain raddled brain, the unbearable urge to push comes over me.

“Help me!” I groan as I try to turn onto my back, flailing my right arm towards Ty for help.

“Ok, you’re ok,” Ty sooths as he gets me onto my back and positions himself at my feet; pushing the blanket up over my legs to have full view of my opening. “I don’t know if you’re fully dilated or not…” he trails off nervously as Jared helps me sit up, sitting behind me so that my shoulders are supported by his snake end.

“I don’t fucking care if I’m fucking fully dilated or not; I’m pushing!” I say as the contraction builds up, pushing as hard as I can while supporting myself up on two shaky arms as I lean forward.

“Good!” Ty practically yells as I drop back onto Jared, breathing heavily. Ty gives my left ankle a comforting squeeze before the next contraction hits.

Contraction after contraction, I push, Jared eventually pushing me upwards once I become too tired to sit up on my own. I lose time, too consumed by pain, screaming, crying and encouraging words to fully understand how long I push for.

“Come on, the head’s almost out!” Ty practically screams suddenly as the burning down below becomes too intense. “You can do this.”

“Doing good,” Jared whispers in my ear before pushing me upwards when he feels my body tense up.

“FUCK!” I scream as I bear down.

“It’s out! You’re almost done Jensen!” Ty practically cheers, and his words give me the strength to keep pushing until I feel her body exit mine, and I hear her beautiful cry.

“Oh god!” I cry out happily as I drop back onto Jared. “Oh my god, baby girl,” I whisper as Ty lays my wailing child onto my chest. I tiredly wrap my arms around her, tears streaming down my face as I look at her. “Hi, honey.”

“Jen…” Jared says in awe. “Beautiful.” His voice cracks, and I look over my shoulder to see tears streaming down his face.

“Thank you,” I breathe out; _thank you for saving me, thank you for being there for me, thank you for being a friend_.

“No thank; friend.” Jared says as Ty cuts the cord.

“Let’s get this after birth stuff out of the way so we can clean the little miss.” Ty says, and I look at him to see tears in his eyes as well.

“Ty…” I trail off, too in awe of this whole situation to properly form words.

“If you’re trying the thank me, then you’re wasting your time,” He says with a small smile as he instructs me to push out the placenta, my eyes never leaving the crying little girl in my arms.

“Hey, it’s ok sweetie,” I shush, cradling her in my arms.

“Can I take her?” Ty asks once the after birth is taken care of. “I want to clean her off and get her wrapped up…” he trails off.

I swallow nervously. “Be quick?” I ask hesitantly and he nods with a smile.

“Of course; I don’t want to take this little lady away from you for too long,” He says as I carefully transfer her into his hold. As he carefully stands up and walks towards the makeshift cleaning station, my head drops onto Jared’s stomach, my eyes closing against my will and everything around me goes black.

**Chapter 5 and Epilogue: Rescue and Return**

As I open my eyes, the first thing I see is Ty holding my little girl in his arms, staring fondly at her.

“Ty?” I croak out, and he looks up to give me a small smile.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” He asks, moving closer to me slowly as to not disturb the precious bundle in his arms. I push myself up into a sitting position and groan as pain shoots through my stomach. “Hey, careful,” he says, shifting my little girl into his left arm in order to grab onto my shoulder to steady me.

“I’m ok,” I breathe out. I slowly shift myself until my back is propped up against the stone wall. “Let me hold her,” I say, weakly reaching out my arms towards my baby. He smiles again as he carefully deposits her into my arms. “Hey, baby girl,” I whisper. My eyes begin to burn with tears of joy and relief at seeing her beautiful sleeping face, and I can’t help but smile. “Where’s Jared?” I ask, just noticing that Jared isn’t in sight.

Ty shrugs. “He said that he needed to check some things and explain what’s been going on to the village leader.” I nod, my gaze never leaving the child in my arms. “I would have woken you up sooner, but after all that…” he trails off, and I look up at him.

“Hey, I’m just glad I didn’t pass out while holding her.” I look back down at my little angel. “How is she?”

His smile returns. “Everything looks good to me, and she fell asleep shortly after I had her all cleaned up.”

I shift her into my left arm carefully to wipe the tears from my eyes.

“So….we have a daughter,” he says.

My head shoots upwards; irrational fear entering my chest at the thought of what he might say next. “Yeah…we do.”

His smile dies down as he watches my reaction; a small frown forming on his face. “Hey, I’m not…” He sighs. “While you were in labor, I didn’t let myself think about what all of this truly meant; but, then she was born, and I held her in my arms and saw you hold her and I just…I had time to think while you were asleep…and even though I should be pissed, or shocked or whatever…I’m happy, you know?” He rubs at his jaw line nervously. “I’m not saying that I want full parenting rights or that I want to take her away from you or anything,” He says, and the worry building up in my chest begins to die down. “I just…if you’ll let me, I’d like to get to know you better and visit with her.”

I want to say yes; fuck, if I didn’t have my little girl in my arms I would throw my arms around him in a crushing hug over him being so understanding, but then I remember the situation I’ve put myself in and bite my lip nervously. “Let’s just see how fucked up everything is going to be once I leave this place and take it from there,” I say, not wanting to fixate on what is ahead of me in favor of staying in the present.

“God, I didn’t mean…” he says, looking guilty. “I’m sorry.” He mumbles, and I shrug as I look back down at my – no, our – daughter. “So, does she have a name?”

I smile again. “I really love the name Kayla.” He smiles back. “Kayla Mae Ackles.”

“That’s beautiful.”

“So, you’re ok with it?” I ask hesitantly, and he’ scoffs.

“You carried her for nine months all alone and just went through hell to bring her into this world; you get full reign with the name game.” I nod. “I also think she looks like a Kayla Mae so…” he trails off. We sit there silently for a few moments, both of our eyes drawn to the sleeping infant before I break the peace.

“I know you told me not to bother, but I need to thank you for what you did.” He looks like he wants to protest, but I shake my head gently. “No, you helped me when everything fell apart and you are being like….completely calm about this whole thing,” I say, not exactly knowing how to say ‘doing great with just finding out you have a kid’ thing.

He rolls his eyes. “Oh, I’m freaking out, but what’s going on in my head is nothing compared to what you just went through.”

I reach my right hand out to grasp his large, rough, hand; squeezing it gently. “Thank you for what you did; I don’t want to think about what would have happened if you weren’t here.”

He opens his mouth to speak, but is cut off by someone bursting through the fabric entrance.

“Jeff?” I ask, looking up.

“Oh God, Jensen.” He walks closer towards us, his eyes drawn to Kayla in my arms. “You two are ok, right? Jared told me that you gave birth here but…” he trails off as he crouches down, grabbing onto my shoulder with a gentle hand.

“She’s fine, and I’m in pain but I’ll be fine.”

He breathes a sigh of relief, before smiling down at the bundle in my arms.

“How did you find me?” I ask.

“Jim and I have been looking for you since the feds arrested Mark.”

My eyes widen. “What?”

“Apparently, one of the other scientists was a mole for the feds and has been watching Mark closely for a couple years now. What happened with Jared was the last straw; they came and took him about three hours ago.” He looks back up at me. “We would have tried to look for you sooner but we didn’t want Mark’s cronies following us.”

“So…I’m not going to prison?”

He gives me a small smile and shakes his head and I can’t help but beam with relief.

Jeff continues, “What Mark wanted you to do was illegal…and apparently this isn’t the first time he’s tried doing something like this. But now the government has concrete evidence against him and he’ll most likely never walk free again.”

“Oh thank god…” I breathe out, my eyes tearing up in relief. “I get to keep her,” I cry out, holding my little girl closer to me.

“Shh everything’s ok,” Ty sooths, moving his hand to grasp my forearm.

“Wait, who are you?” Jeff asks, just noticing Ty’s presence.

“Ty Olsson, sir.”

I look up to see Jeff’s eyes widen.

“Wait, like…” he trails off, pointing at Kayla. I nod. “Holy shit…”

“Since it’s obviously safe for Jensen to leave here now, we should get him to a hospital,” Ty says, making Jeff shake his head quickly to regain his composure.

“You’re right.” Jeff quickly stands up. “Jim’s waiting for us in the truck.”

“How did you find this place?” I ask as Ty and Jeff work together to get me standing; making me groan in pain at the movement.

“Are you ok?” Ty asks, and I give him a reassuring smile. “Do you need me to carry you?”

I shake my head. “Just…hold her please?” I ask, holding out my arms to deposit Kayla into his awaiting arms. “Thanks,” I say before wrapping my arms around Jeff to keep me steady. “Just go slow, please.”

Jeff nods as we slowly exit Jared’s home into the main village.

“Jenssssen!” Jared calls, quickly slithering away from a snake woman. “Ok?” he asks.

I nod. “Where are the others?” I ask, only seeing Jared and who I assume to be Genevieve out and about.

“Told to sssstay away, not want watch you.”

I smile. “You didn’t need to do that.”

He shakes his head. “Go?” he asks

I nod again. “Me and Kayla need to go to the hospital to get checked out.”

He looks over towards the little girl in Ty’s arms with a big smile. “Name?” he asks.

“Kayla Mae.”

His smile widens. “Beautiful.”

I pull myself out of Jeff’s grasp and take small, hesitant steps over to Jared. I pull him into my arms and he instantly wraps his arms around my aching body. “Thank you so much.” I whisper into his bare shoulder.

“No thank,” he says before pulling back. “Sssee again?” he asks.

This time, I nod with more resolve. “Mark’s out of the picture so you and the village are no longer in danger.”

He nods. “Visssit when well; want ssssee you and Kayla.”

“I promise.”

Jeff comes up behind me and wraps his arm around my waist.

“We need to get you two to the hospital. Jared, could you lead us out of here?”

Jared nods eagerly as he waves goodbye to the woman.

“Was that Genevieve?” I ask once we’re out of the village and walking down a tunnel.

“Yesss,” he says happily.

I chuckle. “She’s hot, dude.”

Jeff laughs as we come up to a dead end. Jared grabs onto what looks like a steel handle and tugs at it, causing the stone around it to shift outwards. He slowly moves the stone to the left, revealing a tunnel that leads to blue sky and a large blue truck.

“Jensen!” Jim calls, rushing over towards us as we exit the tunnel.

“Jim.” I give him a tired smile as he looks over towards the surprisingly still sleeping baby girl in Ty’s arms.

“She’s beautiful son.”

I beam with pride.

“She’s defiantly gonna be a heart breaker that’s for sure,” Jim adds.

They lead me towards the truck and open the back seat. Jeff helps me up into the high seat and waits until I am positioned so my back is against the car door before moving back. As Jeff and Jim talk to Jared, Ty comes into the truck to hand me Kayla. Once she is safely nestled in my arms, Ty moves to exit the truck but I stop him.

“Wait.” He hesitates as I reach forward to fist his sweatshirt. I weakly pull him forward and capture his lips in mine. At first, his lips stay still, but once he registers what is happening, he deepens the kiss. He pulls away after a few moments with a sheepish grin on his face. “Does that answer your question about me letting you get to know us?” I ask.

He chuckles, pulling out his cellphone. “Put your number in here and I’ll call you tomorrow to check on you two.”

I enter my name and phone number with one hand and hand it back to him to save me in his contacts.

He leans forward to kiss me one last time before climbing out of the truck. “I’ll be seeing you soon then,” he says with a smile before closing the door with a gentle thud.

As we drive away from the area, I wave towards Jared and Ty with my free hand; all of the worry and dread I had felt thirty minutes ago is completely gone. Jared is safe, I get to be with my little girl and me and the little miss get to know Ty…life couldn’t be better.

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++Epilogue-3 months later+++++++++++++++++++++++++

I open the security class envelope in my hands, briefly looking over towards the three month old sleeping in her swinging chair. As I read the words ‘New Assignment’ in bold, my heart skips a beat. _What could this mean?_ I fall back onto the couch as I read the document, and a giant smile makes its way onto my face as I reach for my phone.

_“Hey Darlin,”_ Ty’s voice greets over the phone. “ _What’s up?”_

“I just got a new assignment from corporate.” I answer, placing the papers onto my coffee table.

“ _I’m guessing it’s good news then?”_ he asks.

“Jared’s village agreed to let one of the scientists be introduced into their group so we can study their culture, and guess who they requested personally?”

_“You?!?”_ His voice exclaims over the phone, and I laugh happily.

“Yep; I start next week.”

“ _I’m guessing you’ll need someplace closer to there to stay so you don’t have to be far from Kayla?”_

Over the last three months, Ty and I have grown closer. Ty has made a place in my and Kayla’s lives…and I just can’t imagine life without him in it now.

“Are you asking me if I want to move in with you?”

He chuckles. “ _That way I can watch out little girl while you’re off being all scientific, and you can be close to the village.”_

I roll my eyes. “Yes,” I answer.

As we continue to talk about our future plans, my eyes land on my little daughter clutching a stuffed dog in a tiny fist and I smile. Things in my life are looking up…and I can’t wait to see where this path takes me.

+The End+


End file.
